Akiko

It's pretty much decided... after moving to London last year and beginning to dabble in the richness of Indian restaurants here and beginning to be interested in the culture (I can't believe I've previously missed out on this) my husband and I are probably going for a short trip to Delhi this April. I'm a little intimidated, I know very very little about Delhi, the food, the people... i'd love any information you can send my way: websites, food recommendations, can I eat at stalls? how do I avoid food poisoning, shopping, sites... places for excellent chai, samosas, delicacies particular to delhi.... Thankyou!

I missed this thread! We were just in Paris last week and went to Pierre Herme on several occasions to pick up goodies. I sampled all his macarons in the process. He has a very unusual white truffle macaron, and if you like white truffles, you should really go try it before he changes his collection. I offerred one to a friend who didn't know what a white truffle was and he went, "oooh" and made a face. I guess it wasn't what he was expecting.. white truffle to him meant a white chocolate bon bon.. not a mushroomy tasting thing. Very unusual, in a good way

Can someone post the number to Cafe Constant? Is it possible for me to get a party of 9 people in for dinner? We're going to be in Paris over new year's and will be staying nearby (relatively). I'd like to try it. Thanks in advance!

I'll have to find out about how many zones it has... all I know is that its a weber.. And yes, I mean spatchcock. Have you ever seen a smoker box accessory? I was reading about it last night.... it looks like it sits on TOP of the grill... which would be a plus because otherwise wouldn't I have to remove the grill every 30 minutes to put more wood chips in my foil pouch thing?

Klink or anyone out there with a gas grill I'd love to get your suggestions on smoking with a gas grill. I know, I read that you don't recommend it but I've got to work with what I have! I am going home to Chicago to cook Thanksgiving for my family and am planning to do two turkeys (twenty plus people in my family converge for Thanksgiving). After reading the course, I'd like to smoke one of them. My sister has a Weber Gas Grill... no thermometer on the grill (I'm assuming I'll have to buy one and fix it to the lid or something?) just a low, medium, high type setting... I plan to butterfly a 14 pound turkey and smoke it at around 350 degrees (I like my turkey skin crispy!) Where do I put the wood chips? Does anyone have the Weber Grill cookbook? A quick flick through it the other day showed that they have instructions for smoking on a Gas grill... does anyone recommend the book? Maybe, i'll pick it up! Thanks!

Claire, In this case did you rinse them in cold water first? Or just slice and fry?

I've been making a sweet potato recipe that calls for you to bake them, rice them into a pot of melted butter and milk (or half and half), top with a syrup of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and pecans and then roast in the oven.... but I don't like the texture of the potatoes, it comes out a little... whippy... I'm really looking to make a denser sweet potato, almost like sweet potato pie or sweet potato creme caramel... does anyone have suggestions or a recipe for me?

No pain, no gain ! It would have been worse if I had done that with a 22 pounder and it hadn't been the most amazing turkey I'd ever eaten!

Okay, the turkey was a big lesson... one I won't be repeating anytime soon I went home with my 12 pounder on Thursday evening and brined it on Friday morning... did some other dishes friday night - pumpkin pie, walnut petites. Then bright and early Saturday morning we rinsed the turkey and set him aside to dry and started all the chopping... you and J Steingarten weren't kidding. We only made half the recipe and it still took us 3 hours to get the turkey in the oven, me and my husband chopping away (of course, there was the hour that we spent trying to figure out why my scale wasn't working and then a run to the store to get a new battery.. and the fact that I burned one batch of breadcrumbs!). I hate that paste stuff, it was such a problem... didn't know if I was painting the bird evenly enough... had thick patches and thin. And was already ripping some of the turkey skin as we painted... I have some thoughts on the paste... if the point of the paste is to slow down the cooking of the turkey as well as help seal in the flavor, I'm not sure if its worth it. Why not lower the cooking temperature even more? Or my father in law has this recipe for a turkey that is cooked so slowly, its left in the oven overnight with a wine soaked tea towel draped over it... I wonder if this would present similar results?? The reason I think this is because I believe the "meat falling off the bone" effect is gotten from the turkey being cooked long and slow... I'm not sure if its the paste... I mean, if its a seal effect we are going for, why not roast in a turkey roasting bag? Anyways, this is where we began to go downhill. What I've realized is that you cannot do a Thompson's turkey with a 12 pound bird.... you must do at least 16 if not the whole 22 pounder. The turkey was done much too quickly... Breast was done at less than two hours... stuffing undone and the dark meat would probably have been done in three... but I can't bear the thought of dry white meat so we took the thing out and carved the breasts off... slugged the rest back in. Stuffing was underdone in the end and we pulled it out and popped it back in. And boy was peeling that paste off a pain. The turkey was good but no better than my previous brined versions.... but I didn't get the slow cooked falling off the bone effect. Here are my suggestions for the next person who tries... go for the 22 pounder, although I don't know how you are going to manage the thing.. that's a lot of chopping and heavy pulling in and out of the oven. DO NOT STUFF THE TURKEY, do that separately. Its very difficult to get this turkey to come to temp at the same time without adding the stuffing factor. When you do the stuffing put it in for a long time at a low temp, the flavours don't meld well if you don't. It was just too much trouble to do again... this year. But maybe someday I will try it again with a large turkey. Until then, I'm going to brine and spatchcock my turkeys! And I know I'm the lone dissenting voice, but I wasn't that crazy for the stuffing.

Seth, being Japanese the thought of putting gari - pickled ginger in stuffing sounded so strange to me that I asked another friend who has made the thompson turkey before... preserved ginger... looks like candied rocks was the description! Should be in the baking or spice section of any "good" food store.... I still haven't found it... I'm going to waitrose on Friday, I'll let you know.

Seth, Don't you think that "shell" is actually doing anything? I wondered if its purpose isn't to slow down the cooking even more.... but if that is the case, why don't we just roast at a very low temperature? I've been roasting my chicken a la Heston Blumenthal and doing it at a psychotically low temperature... while I like this - juicy chicken- I do not like the rubbery skin... so i think I'm going to go back to brining and high roasting a spatchcocked chicken. That aside, I'm sure that shell is doing something.... I just don't know what. Seth, what does preserved ginger look like? I just came from a few "high end" markets and couldn't find it. They did have stem ginger in syrup but I don't think this is it? Is preserved ginger dry? Or in a can? Thanks!

My trials with different types of Mashed Po's begins tonight.

Okay, Seth Turkey is arriving on Thursday (had to get a frozen free range) and Sandra those gloves should be arriving soon too! I'm now off to find preserved ginger! Akiko

Is everyone's favored potato for mash a yukon gold? I am now a transplant in the UK... what potato would be the equivalent of a yukon gold?

Sandra, I wasn't thinking about baking them after it was mashed... what effect does this have? I'm still looking for a "mash" texture, not quite the silky texture that I get in my sweet po casserole... I just want the smoothest mash I can get. Thanks! Akiko

So I'm looking to improve my mash. I usually make two types for Thanksgiving. A sweet potato casserole with pecan topping that is excellent, silky sweet, the kids will run away and hide with the casserole dish so they don't have to share. But my mash... I'd love to see what versions other people do, I'm never happy with mine. I'd like to make a very light, creamy, mash. I also want to be able to put a cheese (probably do some kind of blue? like a gorgonzola or dolce?) in it. I've seen a recipe from a french chef, I think he chunked his up, boiled it in a saucepan and then rubbed it on a very fine mesh (one of those flat circle frame things) into the bowl... What do you think? boil, or bake/ heavy cream or milk / food mill or mesh ? How do you do it? Thanks for your help!

I've never thought to question it, all my cooking books, thermometer's etc, all say to cook to that temperature... Has anyone ever made giblet gravy? I've been thinking about the gravy problem since you mentioned the turkey gives no drippings and found a gravy recipe made just from the heart, liver, neck... it also stipulates that you finely dice the heart, liver, neck in the end and throw it into the gravy... which I don't like the idea of. Does anyone have a giblet gravy recipe they like and can tell me how it tastes (I don't like the sound of livery tasting gravy)? Or an idea/recipe of how you make gravy without pan drippings?

The name of the wine bar/bistro is Pisarro's. if anyone lives in Chiswick, this really is a lovely place with good food at a great price... just a little out of the way for us on the southeast side. They have a white cat who will beg you for food.. which I like but my husband won't allow me to feed.

I'll third that, I love Providores

I love the Sunday carvery at Owl and Pussycat but you have to want Very Informal. Kids are not a problem here they can run around as much as they like. There is also a lovely place on the river in Chiswick called.... hang on, let me call my friend who lives near there, I can't remember. It's a wine bar that does very good food and probably has a wonderful Sunday Brunch.

Okay, I'm back to this again, does anyone have any new ideas for where I can get a turkey? I did pick up a kelly bronze from lidgate last year and it was wonderful but it was also £66 If I must, I will pay that again but that is a lot of money to pay for me to do a "mock thanksgiving" when I will do it again in Chicago a short while later! Akiko

If I can find all the ingredients I'm going to do a practice thompson's turkey late in October, I'm going to brine and use a smaller turkey, I'll let you know how it goes but I don't promise anywhere near the description that Seth wrote with! Akiko

OOh, thanks Sandra. Now I know what my husband's thanksgiving present will be as he's the one who is going to get to keep turning the turkey according to Thompson's recipe!

Seth, I can't tell you how exciting I've found this thread. I read Steingarten's article on Thompson's Turkey last year and have planned to try it this year. Your posts have been even more informative than his article! And after I've done it, I'll have to say as you have, its not like I wasn't warned! But as I'm on the quest for the best tasting turkey possible, this isn't deterring me. Seth, do you think if you brined the turkey this would have enhanced the flavor? Helped the white meat be more flavorful? Brining seems to make so many different preparations better, why not here? And why does a Thompson's turkey have to be so big? Someone once told me that smaller turkeys cook more evenly (makes sense) and taste better, couldn't you halve the recipe (less chopping, less effort turning the thing) and come out with possibly better results? I know, if you have huge parties at thanksgiving this poses a problem, but I've always made two turkeys instead of one gargantuan. Do you have any idea what the deal is with the coating? Why would this help the turkey? Do you think it "seals" in the moisture and good tastes!?

You're kidding, blech. That sounds terrible I'm going to try the saltwater trick this weekend... we'll see.